The inventive concept relates generally to semiconductor memory devices. More particularly, the inventive concept relates certain non-volatile memory devices employing an address signal division methods that allow a reduced number of address signal terminals. The inventive concept also relates to electronic systems including this type of non-volatile memory device.
So-called, magnetic random access memory (MRAM) is generally characterized by high memory cell integration density similar to that of dynamic random access memory (DRAM). MRAM provides faster data access speeds than static random access memory (SRAM), and provide non-volatile data storage like flash memory. MRAM operates with lower power consumption than DRAM and SRAM.
However, since conventional MRAM employs current sensing to read and write data, both column and row addresses must be simultaneously applied during read/write operations. As a result, both N-bit row address terminals and M-bit column address terminals must be provided by MRAM to competently receive address signals during read/write operations. Assuming N and M are equal, 2N address terminals must be conventionally provided by MRAM. Unfortunately, as the number of address input terminals increases, the packaging costs associated with the constituent semiconductor memory device also increase. High packaging costs have been recognized as a major impediment to sought-for reductions in the overall production costs of MRAM.
In addition, conventional MRAM are not compatible with conventional DRAM in many ways, including data access signaling.